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OBAMA’S FILL-IN-THE-BLANK SALES PITCH – Carrie Budoff Brown reports for the hometown paper: “President Barack Obama’s speeches have a familiar ring these days — no matter if it’s guns, immigration or the budget. Tout what he’s already done. Say the public’s in his corner. Demand Congress do something. Lament Washington dysfunction. Lay out his own plan. Avoid details. Urge voters to keep up the pressure. Warn it won’t be easy. Bask in the applause. It’s the fill-in-the-blank approach to selling a presidential agenda: same template, just adjusted for the topic. But the White House is betting this particular formula will help push Obama’s ideas through, against a resistant Republican House and a skittish Democratic caucus in the Senate. …

-- “The campaign-first, negotiate-second strategy worked when Obama pressured Congress to extend the payroll tax cut in 2011, avert an interest rate hike on student loans in 2012 and eliminate the Bush-era tax cuts for wealthier families. But none were as politically fraught as overhauling immigration, cutting entitlements or establishing new gun restrictions. His remarks Tuesday on the need to avert the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester underscored the extent to which his pitch has become predictable, even formulaic. Just as he did on immigration last week in Las Vegas and on gun control Monday in Minneapolis, Obama said he wants ‘sensible’ reforms and a balanced approach that ‘the overwhelming majority of the American people’ support but Congress needs to get with the program.

-- “And the reaction from Republican leaders … followed a script, too. Once again, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) took to the Senate floor to claim that Obama prefers political gimmicks to problem-solving. McConnell zeroed in on a longtime Democratic proposal to eliminate the tax breaks for corporate jet owners, which would raise $4 billion over 10 years — only a fraction of the $85 billion cost of pausing the sequester through the end of this year. ‘Yet this is the kind of thing we’ve come to expect from this White House, which spends more time cooking up political dodges than reaching out to Congress to solve pressing problems,’ McConnell said.” http://politi.co/VDeQYT

--McConnell told his conference in a private meeting Tuesday that the spending cuts the GOP wants will require a fight, POLITICO’s Ginger Gibson reports. “‘Nobody said cutting spending would be easy, we need to fight,’ McConnell told Republicans on Tuesday, according to a source with knowledge of the statement. … The Republican leader is urging fellow Republicans to put up more of a fight on upcoming spending battles, including on sequestration. … Senate Republicans on Tuesday retreated across the street from the Capitol, holding all-day meetings at the Library of Congress. While Republicans stayed in town, Democrats are huddling in Annapolis, Md., where Obama will address them on Wednesday. Senate Republicans heard from a number of speakers, including House Speaker John Boehner and pollsters Glen Bolger and David Winston. The keynote speech came from Stephen Hayes, a columnist at The Weekly Standard who talked about the media.” http://politi.co/Wt5F11

BELOW: Boehner tries to hold the line on the sequester.

BREAKING: OBAMA TO NOMINATE REI CEO AS INTERIOR SECRETARY – Juliet Eilperin reports for the Washington Post: “President Obama on Wednesday will nominate Recreational Equipment Inc. (REI) chief executive Sally Jewell to head the Interior Department, according to a White House official who asked not to be identified because the public announcement has not yet been made. The choice of Jewell — who began her career as an engineer for Mobil Oil Corp. and worked as a commercial banker before heading a nearly $2 billion outdoors equipment company — represents an unconventional choice for a post usually reserved for career politicians from the West.

-- “But while she boasts less public policy experience than other candidates who had been under consideration, Jewell — who will have to be confirmed by the Senate — has earned national recognition for her management skills and support for outdoor recreation and habitat conservation. … Jewell, who is being nominated to succeed Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, would take over at a time when many conservationists are pressing Obama to take bolder action on land conservation. Salazar devoted much of his tenure to both promoting renewable energy on public land and managing the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.” http://wapo.st/TJJAe7

FACECHART – Roll Call has rolled out an interactive graphic that allows users to explore the faces of the most demographically diverse Congress in history. You can break down Congress’s composition by age, race, gender and tenure. http://media.cq.com/pub/demographics/

6:30 TONIGHT: GARRETT, CHAFFETZ, HEITKAMP HEADLINE CONGRESSIONAL DINNER – Reporters, editors, lawmakers and staffers will gather tonight at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel for the Washington Press Club Foundation’s 69th annual Congressional Dinner. The foundation says it’s picked two members, “one new to Washington and one with some experience under the belt,” to try to draw out a few laughs from the crowd: Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) and freshman Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.). CBS News’ Chief White House Correspondent Major Garrett will serve as master of ceremonies for the evening. http://bit.ly/UXiVtP

THE FACT-CHECKER: COURTNEY FINDS ERROR IN ‘LINCOLN’ – Adam Clark Estes writes in The Atlantic: “If there is such a thing as winning at fact-checking, Rep. Joe Courtney gets a gold medal for calling out factual errors in Stephen Spielberg's Lincoln. The Connecticut congressman wants it fixed, too. Courtney was watching Lincoln over the weekend — better late than never, right? — when he was a little taken aback by the scene showing two senators from Connecticut congressman voting against ending slavery. … Being a Connecticut congressman himself and a onetime history major at Tufts, Courtney went digging for facts in the archives, and facts are what he found. ‘After some digging and a check of the Congressional Record from January 31, 1865,’ Courtney explained in a letter to Spielberg and DreamWorks explaining his findings. ‘I learned that in fact, Connecticut's entire Congressional delegation, including four members of the House of Representatives … all voted to abolish slavery.’” http://bit.ly/UXrxAB

BRENNAN FACES MORE SCRUTINY OVER TARGETED KILLINGS, DRONE BASE – Greg Miller and Karen DeYoung report on A1 of the Washington Post: “President Obama’s plan to install his counterterrorism adviser as director of the CIA has opened the administration to new scrutiny over the targeted-killing policies it has fought to keep hidden from the public, as well as the existence of a previously secret drone base in Saudi Arabia. The administration’s refusal to provide details about one of the most controversial aspects of its drone campaign — strikes on U.S. citizens abroad — has emerged as a potential source of opposition to CIA nominee John O. Brennan, who faces a Senate confirmation hearing scheduled for Thursday.

-- “The secrecy surrounding that policy was punctured Monday with the disclosure of a Justice Department ‘white paper’ that spells out the administration’s case for killing Americans accused of being al-Qaeda operatives. The timing of the leak appeared aimed at intensifying pressure on the White House to disclose more-detailed legal memos that the paper summarizes — and at putting Brennan, Obama’s top counterterrorism adviser, on the defensive for his appearance on Capitol Hill. Administration officials on Tuesday sought to play down the significance of the disclosure, saying that they have already described the principles outlined in the document in a series of speeches.” http://wapo.st/12sGsqUThe NYT A1 story is here:http://nyti.ms/14DJPtq

CBO: STUBBORN DEFICITS NOT GOING AWAY – David Rogers reports for the hometown paper: “New budget estimates Tuesday reflect an improved economy and slower growth in per capita health care costs but still stubbornly high deficits adding roughly between $6 trillion to $9 trillion in debt over the next 10 years. The government is predicted to end this fiscal year $845 billion in the red. Deficits will fall for the next few years but then rise again to $978 billion by 2023 — even if threatened across-the-board cuts go into effect March 1. The numbers underscore the persistent tension between reducing the deficit and helping along the economic recovery. Indeed, if the cuts were to go into effect on top of tax increases already enacted, it will cost the economy about one percent of GDP in 2013. The 74-page report, prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, is the most complete assessment yet of the government’s fiscal outlook since the New Year’s Day tax deal reached between the White House and Republicans.” http://politi.co/Y8aHfK

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GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, FEBRUARY 6, 2013, and welcome to The Huddle, your play-by-play preview of the day’s congressional news. Send tips, suggestions, comments, complaints and corrections to swong@politico.com. If you don't already, please follow me on Twitter @scottwongDC.

My new followers include but are not limited to ‏@ccontres and @L_Schaef.

TODAY IN CONGRESS – The House is in at 9 a.m. with first and last votes expected between 11 a.m. and noon on the Require a PLAN Act.

The Senate is out today with Democrats attending their annual retreat in Annapolis. The chamber returns at 9:30 a.m. Thursday and is expected to vote to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, which easily cleared a key procedural vote Monday 85-8. At noon Thursday, Sen.-designate William Cowan of Massachusetts will be sworn-in.

AROUND THE HILL – President Barack Obama attends the Senate Democratic Issues Conference at 10:30 a.m. at the Westin Annapolis Hotel in Annapolis, Md. Reps. Joe Heck and Allyson Schwartz host a panel discussion and roll out legislation to permanently repeal the Sustainable Growth Rate formula and enact reforms of Medicare payment and delivery systems at 10:30 a.m. in Longworth 1732.

Speaker John Boehner holds an on-camera briefing with reporters at 10:45 a.m. in HVC Studio A. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Buck McKeon, Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Jim Inhofe, Sens. Kelly Ayotte, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, and Reps. Mac Thornberry and Mike Turner hold a news conference to announce sequester proposals at 1:45 p.m. in the Senate Studio. Vice President Joe Biden swears in John Kerry as secretary of State at 4 p.m. at the State Department.

LABRADOR A QUIET MIDDLEMAN ON IMMIGRATION – Rosalind Helderman reports from Boise, Idaho: “Rep. Raul R. Labrador is the only Puerto Rican, Mormon, tea party immigration lawyer in Congress, which the Idaho Republican figures makes him the perfect bridge between hard-line GOP resistance to an immigration overhaul and the urgent sense among Democrats that the November election won them a free hand on the issue. … Elected to the House in the tea party wave of 2010, Labrador has been conducting quiet talks with Rep. Luis V. Gutierrez (D-Ill.), one of the House’s leading liberal immigration advocates. Recently, he requested a meeting with President Obama, the nemesis of many in his party and his congressional class, to discuss working together on the issue. And he’s expressed a willingness to act as an evangelist for reform, offering to travel the country to conservative districts to explain why fixing a broken system does not mean offering amnesty.

-- “‘Because I’ve proven myself to be a conservative, people are willing to listen to what I have to say on this issue,’ he said last week over lunch a few blocks from the Idaho Capitol. The position could cast Labrador as the House’s version of Marco Rubio (R), the conservative Florida senator who last week signed on to a bipartisan framework for immigration change and has been working relentlessly to sell it on right-wing TV and radio programs. But already, there is pressure back home on Labrador, even as he has carefully positioned himself a little to the right of Rubio.” http://wapo.st/WtYiGD

--At Tuesday’s House Judiciary Committee’s hearing on immigration, Republicans pressed for a piecemeal approach rather than a comprehensive one. They also said they were open to granting illegal immigrants permanent legal status but not full citizenship: POLITICO’s Kate Nocera reports: http://politi.co/XNtoXh

MENENDEZ SPENT UP TO 87% OF SAVINGS TO REPAY COST OF FLIGHTS – Shane Goldmacher reports for National Journal: “When Robert Menendez arrived in the U.S. Senate in 2006, he was a relative pauper in a chamber often called a millionaires’ club. The New Jersey Democrat ranked 97th out of 100 senators in terms of his personal wealth, according to financial records filed that year and compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics. So Menendez’s decision last month to use his personal funds to reimburse a prominent political contributor $58,500 for two flights to the Dominican Republic came at a major cost. The repayment amounts to between 32 percent and 87 percent of the assets Menendez reported holding in bank accounts and stock, according to his latest financial disclosure form, which was filed last year. Menendez repaid Florida eye doctor and political donor Salomon Melgen only after his free flights aboard Melgen’s plane became public and the subject of a Senate ethics complaint. A local New Jersey Republican group filed a complaint last November, alleging the senator had broken Senate rules by “repeatedly flying on a private jet to the Dominican Republic, and other locations.” Menendez reimbursed Melgen the $58,500 two months later, on Jan. 4, according to his office.” http://bit.ly/11UBbDS

BOEHNER TRIES TO HOLD THE LINE ON SEQUESTER – Jake Sherman reports for POLITICO: “At least one House Republican is beginning to wonder whether the sequester is worth it. Rep. Tom Rooney, a Florida Republican, Army veteran and member of the Intelligence Committee, is singing a different tune than most of his fellow Republicans who now accept the sequester: raise taxes If that sentiment snowballs, that could be a problem for Speaker John Boehner as he tries to hold the line against President Barack Obama, who wants to mix spending cuts and tax loopholes closures to delay the spending cuts that now start in March. Rooney — a Boehner ally — said on Tuesday that he ‘would rather have tax increases than cut our defense’ after Obama suggested mixing spending reductions with revenue to stop deep Pentagon cuts. …

-- “Rooney’s buyer’s remorse over Pentagon slashing could have the danger of bleeding over to other GOP lawmakers before the sequester takes effect at the start of March, something that would help Obama — and hurt Boehner. After all, it was just one GOP lawmaker — Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole — who supported the idea of raising taxes for those making more than $250,000 during the fiscal cliff negotiations in December. The GOP later compromised on tax hikes for the wealthy.” http://politi.co/Y8RsCU

-- POLITICO’s Darren Samuelsohn reports that Obama’s Cabinet has been under a ‘gag order’ about the impacts of the looming sequester – something that’s infuriated Senate Appropriations Chairwoman Barbara Mikulski. “[S]he’s planning a hearing next Thursday to give domestic agencies a chance to make their case by inviting officials from OMB, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development and Homeland Security. ‘It’s been under a gag order,’ the Maryland Democrat said of President Barack Obama’s Cabinet to POLITICO. ‘I’m against gag rules.’” http://politi.co/Y8OePL

RUBIO ON CLIMATE CHANGE: ‘THE CLIMATE IS ALWAYS CHANGING’ -- Sen. Marco Rubio dropped by a the inaugural BuzzFeed Brews event at a Capitol Hill bar, where he was asked about the impacts of climate change, why he prefers Tupac over Biggie and 2016. Rubio “said Tuesday that he is not worried about changing climate in Florida specifically, and declined to identify the causes of climate change in general. ‘The climate is always changing,’ Rubio said vaguely. Indeed, he tried to cast doubt upon the notion that climate change is a man-made phenomenon. I've actually seen reasonable debate on that principle,’ Rubio said.” http://bit.ly/UXgTKb

-- “[R]appers are like reporters,” Rubio said according to ABC News: “Rubio even discussed his musical leanings, and showed off his diverse knowledge of ’90s rap music. ‘I think Tupac’s lyrics were more insightful, my opinion, with all apologies to the Biggie fans,’ he said. ‘In some ways, rappers are like reporters. In particular at that time, from the West Coast, it was a lot of reporting about what life was like … so the ’90s was a time when this was really pronounced. You had gang wars, racial tension, and they were reporting on that.’” http://abcn.ws/12syP3uVideo of the full BuzzFeed interview is here:http://bit.ly/VU04ip

OBAMA TO PREVIEW SOTU AT HOUSE DEMS RETREAT – Roll Call’s Jonathan Strong reports: “House Democrats are heading to a retreat in Leesburg, Va., unified around a more aggressively liberal agenda put forward by President Barack Obama at his inaugural address, but they are facing lingering questions about how they’ll navigate the difficult path back to a House majority. Lawmakers say the discussions at the three-day gathering will be dominated by four looming policy fights: spending battles, immigration, gun control and electoral changes. Obama is expected to brief Democrats on his plans for those issues Thursday, including a preview of his upcoming State of the Union address. Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. will speak Wednesday, and President Bill Clinton is slated to deliver the closing keynote address Friday. There is also a surprise guest planned for Friday morning: Democratic Caucus Chairman Xavier Becerra of California would only describe him as ‘he who will not be named.’” http://bit.ly/WQnOlK

FORMER REP. CARDISS COLLINS DEAD AT 81 – “Hailed as a trailblazer, Cardiss Collins, the first African-American woman to represent Illinois in Congress and for many years the only black congresswoman, has died at age 81,” The Chicago Sun-Times Lauren Fitzpatrick writes. “Family friend Mel Blackwell said Mrs. Collins died of complications from pneumonia Sunday evening at a hospital in Alexandria, Va. The Democratic Machine sent Mrs. Collins to Congress to fill the 7th Congressional District seat after her husband, Rep. George Collins, was killed in a plane crash. But she quickly made the job her own during the 22 years she held it.” http://bit.ly/X3c6Hw

TUESDAY’STRIVIA WINNER – Ben Goodman was first to correctly answer that Tip O’Neill (D-Mass.) served the longest continuously as speaker of the House. He served from 1977 to 1987. Sam Rayburn served three stints as speaker for a total of 17 years, but none of those stints was longer than O’Neill’s decade-long reign.

TODAY’S TRIVIA – Todd Hauptli has a question related to the one he offered earlier this week: Name a father and son duo who have chaired the same committee in Congress? First to correctly answer gets a mention in the next day’s Huddle. Email me at swong@politico.com.

GET HUDDLE emailed to your Blackberry, iPhone or other mobile device each morning. Just enter your email address where it says “Sign Up.” http://www.politico.com/huddle/

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